Police officer Constable Lauston Percival on U.S. Embassy Sponsored International Visitor Leadership Program

Const. Lauston Percival

Bridgetown, Barbados, Monday, January 31, 2011 – Constable Lauston Percival of the Royal St. Kitts & Nevis Police Force headed to the United States last week to begin a three week program as a fellow of the International Visitor Leadership Program of the U.S. Department of State.

Constable Percival will participate in a program on “Children in the U.S. Justice System” along with 18 other candidates from around the world from January 24 until February 11.

The International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) is the Department of State’s premier professional exchange program. The program brings together emerging leaders in their respective professions to learn from how U.S. experts in this profession operate, and to share best practices with the other program fellows who hail from the same region and across the globe.

Constable Percival and other participants on the “Children in the U.S. Justice System” program will explore the U.S. judicial system’s legal structures that protect children.

Percival and his fellow participants will meet with juvenile justice and child protection officials and groups in Washington, DC, Reno, Memphis and Miami to discuss issues such as international cooperation to combat child trafficking and exploitation. The program will also look at ways of resolving cross-border child custody disputes and implementing the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction.

During the course of the program, they will also examine the juvenile justice system in the U.S. and best practices in treatment and rehabilitation tailored to the needs of juvenile offenders and their families.